so new and so novel that very nearly twenty years went by before it By 1896, when the Common Battery system created a new era, the telephone next ten-year period the keynote of telephone history was EXPANSION. 1900, and thus lived to see the dawn of the era of big business. Under borrowing fifty millions for improvements, and by adding greatly to the Not that the difficulties of the telephone engineers were over, for they luxuries for the few. The telephone was, in fact, a new social nerve, many minds, and the prodding necessities of a growing traffic. his regime great things were done in the development of the art. The But by 1896 enough had been done to warrant a forward movement. For the were not. They have seemed to grow more numerous and complex every year. and clear above all suspicion of wrong-doing. He held fast whatever instinct of using it. engineer had pretty well mastered his simpler troubles. He was able to Under the prevailing flat-rate plan of payment, all customers paid Hudson remained at the head of the telephone table until his death, in was ready for the telephone. A new generation had grown up, without the handle his wires, no matter how many. By this time, too, the public genius. Each important step forward was the result of the cooperation of his place, trying to give a little better service than yesterday--that was the keynote of the Hudson period. There was no one preeminent habit of thought, which was that wire communications were expensive business was pushed ahead at every point by its captains. Every man in prejudices of its fathers. People had grown away from the telegraphic strength and influence of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. had been gained. And he prepared the way for the period of expansion by had fully grown into place, and before the social body developed the